A Battleship and More Rooting! Wilmington, N.C.

We visited Wilmington two years ago searching for the Hines family roots in this area and found many. We came back this trip to look further.  We camped at the Wilmington Elks Lodge which is one of the few full hookup Elks Lodges in the country!   That means besides 30A electric and water, it also has a dump station.  The Elks Lodge was quiet (except for Monday night bingo!) and amazingly close to Seagate Cemetery, where many Hines' and other families connected by marriage are buried—just behind the Lodge's back fence!!

The Hines' plot with several relatives at Seagate

When we arrived in Wilmington, we drove downtown to look around the riverfront and parked across the river from the USS North Carolina (BB-55), the lead ship of the two ship (2^nd was USS Washington BB-56) North Carolina class Navy battleships.  We went aboard a few years back and were impressed with her history.  BB-55 was built at the New York Naval Shipyard and commissioned in April 1941, the first new design battleship in two decades!  North Carolina was faster and better armed with 9-16” guns than any battleship previously.  She moved to the Pacific in summer 1942 beginning with the battles of Guadalcanal and Tulagi and participated in every major Naval offensive in the Pacific.  She was the most highly decorated battleship in World War II with 15 battle stars earned!  Her nickname was the “Showboat.” 

USS North Carolina had a short naval career though, and in June 1947 was decommissioned.  She was transferred to the state of North Carolina in September 1961 as a museum ship. $330,000 was raised by the schoolchildren of North Carolina responding to a campaign called “Save our Ship!  She was towed up the Cape Fear River into her permanent mooring across from downtown Wilmington and dedicated in April 1962 as a Memorial to all North Carolina citizens killed in World War II.  She is beautiful to see!

Lin's cousin Beth supplied a list of family names to look for in Wilmington cemeteries and we went to work, first in Lebanon Chapel Cemetery in Airlie Gardens county park.  We knew Lin's paternal grandfather was buried there and maybe his great grandfather/mother.  Because the Chapel and cemetery are located in a county park, you are required to pay an admission fee of $9 each (up from $5 each 2 years ago!)

W.W. Hines -- Lin's Grandfather

This cemetery has suffered from vandal damage and lack of upkeep for many years.  It is very overgrown in many areas and lots of stones are broken, fallen down or gone completely.  Afterwards, Lin called the Chapel's parent church, historic St. James Episcopal Church downtown to see what records they had and why there is no maintenance.  He was told they have no records and there is no money for maintenance.  They really didn't seem to have any interest at all and that's a shame!  Lebanon Chapel is in beautiful condition because weddings are held there regularly.  

We got our photographs of relevant graves and walked around the very beautiful gardens in Airlie Gardens with a large lake and river frontage.  We saw great egrets roosting in a tree, turtles sunning on a log and a green anole lizard blowing up his throat pouch and the butterfly house was fun as always.  Lots of events and weddings are held here in the Gardens and it is very well maintained.

The mimosa trees in full bloom

There were also some very interesting metal sculptures and a strange and weird chapel made out of bottles and other glass containers.

A special shrine to Mother Buttersworth!

While we were in Wilmington, we wanted to return to an excellent Chinese restaurant we had found two years earlier, called Double Happiness.  Their specialty is dim sum, which we both love, but seldom get. Hint—we had lots of shrimp dim sum!  Again it was absolutely delicious with excellent service as well.  Sorry, no pix but go there if you visit Wilmington!

Back to genealogy, we discovered that findagrave.com has added a new feature.  If you bring up a cemetery, you can ask for a list of all Hines' or whatever name you are researching.  That led us to discover that many Hines' are buried in Oleander Cemetery.  We drove over there but, it's beginning to sound like a broken record, they didn't have time to look up locations of several Hines' we knew were in their cemetery.  With over 8000 graves in a garden style cemetery with all horizontal markers on the ground, it could take a week to find them without help.  What we're interested in is whether there are any family plots like we saw everywhere in Seagate Cemetery.  Maybe next time??

US Courthouse downtown Wilmington

Riverboat on the waterfront

Wilmington is getting to be a big city with about 107,000 population and lots of upscale areas.  It's North Carolina's principal deep water port which is located on the Cape Fear River. The town has a 230 block historic district with many beautiful homes and a scenic river walk with many boutiques, antique shops and restaurants.  There are 30 miles of beachfront near the Atlantic Ocean also for sailing, surfing, scuba and kiteboarding.  There are several sightseeing cruise ships on the Cape Fear River near downtown and many museums and parks.  People are generally very friendly and helpful and we again enjoyed our visit!

We are being overtaken by a horse-drawn trolley!